2. In 2010/11 food utilization exceeded food production and in the last year the prices of sugar, cereals and oils and fats have increased about 1.4-fold (see (see FAO, “World Food Situation”: http://www.fao.org/worldfoodsituati... ).

3. Water-borne diseases kill about 1.8 million people each year, 1.1 billion people lack proper drinking water and 2.5 billion people lack access to improved sanitation, with this including 1.1 billion people lacking access to any sanitation facilities.

4. About 0.9 billion people were malnourished in 2010 although there was plenty of food to feed them.

5. In 2010 about 18 million people died avoidably from deprivation and deprivation-exacerbated disease in the Developing World (excluding China).

6. In the period 1950-2005 it is estimated that avoidable deaths from deprivation totaled 1.3 billion (the World), 1.2 billion (the Non-European World) and 0.6 billion (the Muslim World).

7. In the period 1950-2005 it is estimated that under-5 infant deaths totaled 0.88 billion (the World), 0.85 billion (the Non-European World) and 0.4 billion (the Muslim World).

9. The species extinction rate is 100-1,000 times normal and associated with resource utilization and global warming.

10. The atmospheric CO2 concentration was 180-300 parts per million (ppm) for the last 0.8 million years but has jumped enormously in the last half century to 392 ppm (currently increasing at 2.4 ppm per year). Biochar can draw down atmosphere CO2 to 300 ppm (see “ Forest biomass-derived Biochar can profitably reduce global warming and bushfire risk”: https://sites.google.com/site/yarra... ).

12. Top climate scientists have estimated that only 0.5 billion people may survive unaddressed climate change this century, a climate genocide that will kill about 10 billion people.

13. Greed-based Business As Usual (BAU) means climate change inaction that is compounded by the biofuel food for fuel) and emissions trading perversions and a disastrously counterproductive Gas Boom, Gas Rush and coal to gas transition.

15. A World Bank re-assessment of the methane contribution indicates that our GHG pollution is 50% bigger than hitherto though and that methanogenic livestock contribute over 50% of the higher figure (see Robert Goodland and Jeff Anfang. “Livestock and climate change. What if the key actors in climate change are … cows, pigs and chickens?”, World Watch, November/December 2009: http://www.worldwatch.org/files/pdf... ).

16. Meat eating is a deadly luxury in a malnourished and warming world, diverting precious grain on a huge scale to the First World luxury of meat eating, increasing grain prices and increasing malnutrition and the threat of mass starvation .

What must we do to stop the continuing global avoidable mortality holocaust?

The continuing, horrendous global avoidable mortality is fundamentally due to violence, deprivation, disease and lying. We are one species confined to one planet and we revel in the richness of nature and human cultural diversity. The peace and cooperative community we commonly experience at the level of village, town, city and nation should apply internationally throughout Spaceship Earth. Intolerance of dishonesty, bigotry and violence, respect for human rights, international law and our common environment and commitment to truth, reason and a modestly decent life for everyone will end the global avoidable mortality holocaust and ensure that it will never be repeated.

More specifically, stopping the avoidable mortality holocaust involves peace, decent governance, high female literacy, good primary heath care, and a modest annual per capita income of at least circa $2,000 for all. Examples of things we can well do without (each worth about $1 trillion per year) to achieve a modest income for all include arms, tobacco, alcohol, junk food, and illicit drugs (see “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950”: http://globalbodycount.blogspot.com/ ).

What must we do to seriously tackle the worsening climate emergency?

1. Change of societal philosophy to one of scientific risk management and biological sustainability with complete cessation of species extinctions and zero tolerance for lying.

2. Urgent reduction of atmospheric CO2 to a safe level of about 300 ppm as recommended by leading climate and biological scientists for a safe planet for all peoples and all species (see “300.org – return atmosphere CO2 to 300 ppm”: https://sites.google.com/site/300or... ).

3. Rapid switch to the best non-carbon and renewable energy (solar thermal, wind, geothermal, wave, tide and hydro options that are currently roughly the same market price as coal burning-based power and less than the true price of carbon-based power taking environmental and human impacts into account) and to energy efficiency, renewable energy-powered public transport, needs-based production, re-afforestation and return of carbon as biochar (charcoal) to soils or underground storage, coupled with correspondingly rapid cessation of fossil fuel burning, deforestation, methanogenic livestock production and population growth (see “Climate crisis facts and required actions”, Yarra Valley Climate Action Group: https://sites.google.com/site/yarra... ).

Peace is the only way but silence kills and silence is complicity. Please tell everyone you can to help save Spaceship Earth.

The far-right in Ukraine are acting as the vanguard of a protest movement that is being reported as pro-democracy. The situation on the ground is not as simple as pro-EU and trade versus pro-Putin and Russian hegemony in the region.
When US Senator John McCain dined with Ukraine’s opposition leaders in December, he shared a table and later a stage with the leader of the extreme far-right Svoboda party Oleh Tyahnybok.
This is Oleh Tyahnybok, he has claimed a "Moscow-Jewish mafia" (...)

Your support here: http://www.peaceinsyria.org/support.php
We, the undersigned, who are part of an international civil society increasingly worried about the awful bloodshed of the Syrian people, are supporting a political initiative based on the results of a fact-finding mission which some of our colleagues undertook to Beirut and Damascus in September 2012. This initiative consists in calling for a delegation of highranking personalities and public figures to go to Syria in order to (...)

At first glance, the results of America’s 2012 election appear to be a triumph for social, racial, and economic justice and progress in the United States: California voters passed a proposition requiring the rich to shoulder their fair share of the tax burden; Two states, Colorado and Washington, legalized the recreational use of marijuana, while Massachusetts approved the use of marijuana for medical purposes; Washington and two other states, Maine and Maryland, legalized same-sex (...)

In a 2004 episode of Comedy Central’s animated series South Park, an election was held to determine whether the new mascot for the town’s elementary school would be a “giant douche” or a “turd sandwich.” Confronted with these two equally unpalatable choices, one child, Stan Marsh, refused to vote at all, which resulted in his ostracization and subsequent banishment from the town.
Although this satirical vulgarity was intended as a commentary on the two (...)

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If there is one major inconsistency in life, it is that young people who know little more than family, friends and school are suddenly, at the age of eighteen, supposed to decide what they want to do for the rest of their lives. Unfortunately, because of their limited life experiences, the illusions they have about certain occupations do not always comport to the realities.
I discovered this the first time I went to college. About a year into my studies, I (...)

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PART II
PART IV
Disillusioned with the machinations of so-called “traditional” colleges, I became an adjunct instructor at several “for-profit” colleges.
Thanks largely to the power and pervasiveness of the Internet, “for-profit” colleges (hereinafter for-profits) have become a growing phenomenon in America. They have also been the subject of much political debate and the focus of a Frontline special entitled College Inc.
Unlike traditional (...)

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PART IV
Several years ago, a young lady came into the college where I was teaching to inquire about a full-time instructor’s position in the sociology department. She was advised that only adjunct positions were available. Her response was, “No thanks. Once an adjunct, always an adjunct.”
Her words still echo in my mind.
Even as colleges and universities raise their tuition costs, they are relying more and more on adjunct instructors. Adjuncts are (...)

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When The Bill of Rights was added to the United States Constitution over two hundred years ago, Americans were blessed with many rights considered to be “fundamental.” One conspicuously missing, however, was the right to an education.
This was not surprising given the tenor of the times. America was primarily an agrarian culture, and education, especially higher education, was viewed as a privilege reserved for the children of the rich and (...)

If there is one universal question that haunts all human beings at some point in their lives, it is, “Why do we die?”
Death, after all, is the great illogic. It ultimately claims all, the rich and the poor, the mighty and the small, the good and the evil. Death also has the capability to make most human pursuits—such as the quest for wealth, fame and power—vacuous and fleeting.
Given this reality, I have often wondered why so many people are still willing to (...)

How much corruption can a “democracy” endure before it ceases to be a democracy?
If five venal, mendacious, duplicitous, amoral, biased and (dare I say it) satanic Supreme Court “justices”—John Roberts, Samuel Alito, Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Anthony Kennedy—have their way, America will soon find out.
In several previous articles for Pravda.Ru, I have consistently warned how the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision is one of the (...)

Imagine, if you will, that the United States government passes a law banning advertisers from sponsoring commercials on Rush Limbaugh’s radio show or Rupert Murdoch’s Fox (Faux) “News” Network.
On one hand, there would be two decided advantages to this ban: The National IQ would undoubtedly increase several percentage points, and manipulative pseudo-journalists would no longer be able to appeal to the basest instincts in human nature for ratings and profit while (...)

LIVE, from the State that brought you Senator Joseph McCarthy, Wisconsin voters now proudly present, fresh from his recall election victory, Governor Scott Walker!
At first glance, it is almost unfathomable that anyone with a modicum of intelligence would have voted to retain Scott Walker as Wisconsin’s governor. This, after all, is a man who openly declared he is trying to destroy the rights of workers through a “divide and conquer” strategy; who received 61% of the (...)

A question I’ve frequently been asked since I began writing for Pravda.Ru in 2003 is, “Why did you become disillusioned with the practice of law?”
This question is understandable, particularly since, in most people’s minds, being an attorney is synonymous with wealth and political power.
I’ve always been reluctant to answer this question for fear it will discourage conscientious and ethical people from pursuing careers in the legal profession—a (...)